New year share tips are no use to those investors who prefer funds. So here
are our 'fund tips' for 2014

New year share tips have long been a feature of newspaper pages over the festive season but many investors are more comfortable asking an experienced stock-picker to do the work for them. In other words, they prefer to invest in funds.

So we have put together a list of some of the funds to watch for next year, compiled with the help of those professional investors who choose funds for a living - “fund of fund” managers or “multi-managers”.

“Schroders has a huge, well resourced research team in Hong Kong and Singapore and some of the attractive investment opportunities it uncovers are too small for the company’s bigger funds. So one of Schroders’ manager, Matthew Dobbs, suggested starting a new fund to exploit these opportunities. I can’t think of another fund that has been launched on a manager’s recommendation like this.”

He said it had produced double-digit growth this year at a time when emerging market shares had struggled. “I’ve had a stake in the fund since last year, since when it has risen by about 11pc,” Mr Hambi said.

Another emerging markets fund has attracted the attention of David Hambidge, Mr Hambi’s opposite number at Premier Asset Management. He said: “Looking at the recent flow of money out of certain funds, it would seem that investors are falling out of love with the emerging markets theme. We believe that this is a mistake.

“While it is not possible to perfectly time the bottom of any market or sector, we believe that valuations of emerging market shares are attractive – and at least with the Charlemagne fund investors can enjoy a healthy dividend of around 4.7pc while they wait for a recovery to take hold.”

This fund was taken over by Richard Buxton earlier this year when Old Mutual poached him from Schroders, where he ran a similar fund.

Gary Potter, who runs the fund of funds range at F&C with Rob Burdett, backed it for its ability to invest in companies of all sizes. He said he was concerned that smaller businesses would find it tough to repeat the strong performance they had enjoyed over the past couple of years.

“I still think they will do well, so it would not be prudent to sell out,” Mr Potter said. “But I think the big blue chip firms in the FTSE 100 will perform better because they are more global in nature and can therefore continue to grow their earnings overseas. Savers should consider a fund that has been switching into this area of the market in recent months.

“I would back a fund such as Old Mutual UK Alpha that can invest across the market spectrum and doesn’t have all its eggs in one market.”